TL;DR: AMC recalls, or AMC recall questions, are past exam questions that candidates reconstruct from memory and share in forums and study groups. Their real value is the topics: they show which presentations candidates keep meeting in the AMC exam. Raw recall papers are less reliable, because memory drops the details, answer keys are crowd-voted and the AMC itself has found many circulating stems and answers wrong. AMC Academic writes its own exam-style cases on recalled topics, each with a worked answer, a reason every wrong option is wrong and the Australian guideline behind it. 18 are linked below, free.
Practise recalled topics free: browse all 50 worked AMC cases or take 20 timed questions. No account, no card.
Search "AMC recalls" and you won't be short of results. PDF compilations, threads sorted by exam month, answer keys argued over in the comments. The appeal is obvious. The AMC Part 1 exam costs AUD 2,920 a sitting, and anything that promises a look at the real questions feels like insurance.
Then you open one and something feels off. "Older man with back pain, what's the diagnosis?" Four options someone half-remembers. No observations, no timings, no results. The key says C, and the top comment argues for A.
This guide covers what AMC recall questions are, why candidates use them, where raw recall papers fall short, and how to practise recalled topics safely. Every case we link is free, written by our doctors on recalled topics and checked against Australian guidelines.
What are AMC recalls?
AMC recalls (you'll also see "AMC MCQ recalls" or "recall questions") are questions that candidates reconstruct from memory after sitting the AMC CAT MCQ examination, the exam almost everyone calls AMC Part 1. They turn up in forums and study groups, get collected by exam month, and sometimes end up bundled into paid prep material.
The exam they're trying to capture is big. It's 150 single-best-answer questions, five options each, sat in one 3.5-hour session at Pearson VUE centres in Australia and overseas. It's also computer adaptive. The first question is chosen at random, a correct answer pulls a harder question, a wrong answer pulls an easier one, and you can't skip ahead or go back. (Our AMC exam overview covers the format in full.)
That design matters for recalls. Two people sitting in the same week don't get the same paper, so a "May recall" is really a patchwork of fragments from different candidates' different exams.
Why candidates use AMC recall questions
It's worth being fair about the appeal, because the reasons are good ones.
They show the exam's style. Long vignettes, five options, an Australian setting. Seeing that before exam day takes some of the fear out of it.
They're a way to practise under time pressure. At roughly 84 seconds a question, speed is a skill you have to train.
They hint at recurring themes. When the same presentation keeps turning up in threads, people reasonably treat it as high-yield.
They make you reason through cases. Working a clinical scenario through to a diagnosis and a management decision is exactly what the exam rewards.
Every one of those is a good reason to practise, and they're exactly what our recall-topic cases are built for. The catch is in the raw recall papers themselves.
Where raw AMC recall papers fall short
Suppose every recall was written in good faith by someone who genuinely wanted to help. It would still steer you wrong, for five reasons.
Memory keeps the story and drops the numbers. In AMC questions, the numbers usually are the question. Our paracetamol overdose case turns entirely on a level taken three hours after ingestion, which is exactly the kind of detail that slips after a 3.5-hour exam. In the rural STEMI case, the deciding fact is that the nearest PCI centre is 180 km away. Australian guidelines prefer primary PCI only when it can happen within 120 minutes of first medical contact, so that one distance flips the answer from "transfer" to "thrombolyse now, then angiography". Drop a detail like that and no option is clearly right.
The answer key is a vote. Recall keys are usually whatever the group settled on, and group votes drift towards the answer that feels familiar. AMC options are written so that several of them feel familiar. In our snake bite case, a collapsed farmer has an INR of 3.1 and a fibrinogen of 0.7, and fresh frozen plasma looks like the obvious fix. It isn't: venom consumes clotting factors given before antivenom, so antivenom comes first. That's precisely the trap a crowd walks into.
No explanation, no transfer. Most recall papers come with an answer letter at best, not the reasoning behind it. Memorise the letter and you're stuck the moment a question changes one detail. Every one of our cases, like the acute severe asthma case, explains why the right answer is right and gives a one-line reason each wrong option is wrong.
The exam and the guidelines move. Recalls don't. A recall's answer is frozen on the day someone typed it, while the exam is pitched at what a doctor graduating in Australia is expected to know now. Our uncomplicated diverticulitis case shows the problem: a well, immunocompetent patient with CT-confirmed uncomplicated disease is managed as an outpatient without antibiotics. A key written before that shift would tell you to prescribe them. The exam changes as well: the AMC raised the MCQ pass standard for 2026 and replaced its guide to examinable topics the same year.
A small, skewed slice of the exam. Even a big recall collection covers a fraction of the questions the AMC can draw on, and it isn't a random fraction. People remember drama: the collapse, the tension pneumothorax, the baby with projectile vomiting. The quieter questions on screening intervals, notification and consent blur together and drop out of the lists. Yet Population health and ethics alone is 12.5% of the blueprint, roughly one question in eight. Our free cases cover exactly those quieter topics: breast screening with a family history, fitness to drive, mandatory reporting of suspected abuse, notifying Ahpra about an impaired colleague, Gillick competence and confidentiality and a capable adult refusing life-saving surgery.
Why our recall-topic cases are written from scratch
We write every case from scratch for a reason. The AMC's MCQ Examination Specifications (September 2025) are clear on three points:
The AMC owns the copyright in all of its examination material, and no part of an exam may be reproduced, stored or transmitted.
Disclosing exam content, or supplying or selling material that claims to be AMC exam content, is a breach of the examination rules. The consequences it lists include exclusion from the exam, being refused future attempts, and being reported to authorities including the Medical Board of Australia.
The AMC has been sent copies of the papers circulating online and found "many of the question stems and responses to be incorrect." It warns that preparing from them can leave you with a distorted picture of the exam's format and content.
The AMC can also withhold a result if its analysis suggests a candidate's performance was materially affected by prior knowledge of the questions. So we take the topics candidates recall and write new, fully referenced questions around them. You get the high-yield focus without the errors or the risk. Browse the free cases.
Raw recall papers vs AMC Academic's recall-topic cases
| What you want | What raw recall papers give you | What our recall-topic cases give you |
|---|---|---|
| The exam's style | Half-remembered stems with key details missing | Full vignettes in the AMC's single-best-answer format, five options each |
| Timed practice | Whatever pace you set yourself | A 90-second routine for every case, plus 20 free timed questions |
| High-yield topics | Whatever people happened to remember | Recalled topics, sorted into the AMC's six patient groups and mapped to the published blueprint |
| Clinical reasoning | An answer letter, if that | A worked explanation, a one-line reason each wrong option is wrong, and a takeaway |
| Accuracy | Memory plus a crowd vote | Written by doctors and checked against Australian guidelines |
| Currency | Frozen on the day it was typed | An updated date and the guideline behind each answer |
| The rules | Sharing them breaches AMC conditions | Our own questions on recalled topics, free to use and share |
What the AMC says is examinable
Recall threads tell you what candidates remember. The AMC publishes what it can examine, and it's free.
The blueprint. The MCQ Examination Specifications split the 150 questions across six patient groups: Adult health (Medicine) 30%, Adult health (Surgery) 20%, and 12.5% each for Women's health, Child health, Mental health, and Population health and ethics. That's about 45 Medicine questions, 30 Surgery and around 19 in each of the other four. The same document ends with sample questions.
The topic guide. In 2026 the AMC published Australian Medicine in Context: Key presentations and topics for entry to practice, replacing its 2003 Anthology of medical conditions. The AMC calls it "essentially a guide to what is examinable." It lists the patient presentations and professional practice topics you're expected to handle, plus chapters on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health, how Australian health care is organised and funded, and practitioner registration.
Our cases sit where the two meet: topics candidates recall, mapped to the AMC's blueprint and checked against Australian guidelines. A map won't make you quick and accurate under time pressure, though. That takes practice on well-written questions, which is exactly what our free clinical cases and our AMC question bank are for.
How to use AMC recalls safely
Recall papers are useful for spotting topics. Four rules keep them from doing damage:
Use them for topics, not answers. They cover too little, too unevenly, to replace a structured question bank or the guidelines.
Check every answer. Look up the current Australian guideline, or find our free case on the same topic, before you trust a recall's key.
Learn the reasoning, not the letter. If you can't explain why the other four options are wrong, you haven't learned the question.
Never share or sell them. That's what the AMC's rules prohibit, and it can cost you future attempts.
Or go straight to recalled topics that are already checked: start with the free cases below.
18 free AMC recall-topic cases with worked answers
Each one takes a topic candidates recall and turns it into a full exam-style case: a vignette, five options, a worked explanation, one line on why each wrong option is wrong, and a takeaway you can revise from. There are three from each of the six patient groups the exam uses. Do them cold before you read the answer.
Adult health: Medicine
Transient ischaemic attack: urgent investigation. Arm weakness and a speech disturbance that have already resolved, ABCD2 score of 6. What has to happen next, and how fast?
Acute severe asthma not responding to nebulisers. A silent chest and a rising CO2 despite back-to-back nebulisers. Choose the most urgent next intervention.
Suspected pulmonary embolism: choosing the right test. Pleuritic pain and haemoptysis after a long flight. Which test settles it?
Adult health: Surgery
Paracetamol overdose: timing the level. A deliberate overdose arrives early with a 3-hour level. What do you do with that number?
Tension pneumothorax in a ventilated patient. A ventilated patient suddenly collapses with tracheal deviation. What you do before anyone orders an X-ray.
Testicular torsion: straight to theatre. Sudden scrotal pain and absent Doppler flow. Manual detorsion, or theatre?
Women's health
Pre-eclampsia at 34 weeks: admit and stabilise. Hypertension, proteinuria and a headache at 34 weeks. Build the immediate plan.
Primary postpartum haemorrhage: escalating uterotonics. A boggy uterus keeps bleeding despite first-line uterotonics. What's the next step up?
Ruptured ectopic pregnancy with shock. Shoulder tip pain, shock and free fluid at 7 weeks. What's the immediate management?
Child health
Jaundice in the first 24 hours: ABO incompatibility. Jaundiced at 18 hours, mother is group O, spherocytes on the film. Which test confirms it?
Intussusception: non-operative reduction. Redcurrant jelly stool, a sausage-shaped mass and a target sign on ultrasound. How do you reduce it?
Bronchiolitis: supportive care only. A wheezy, hypoxic 6-month-old with RSV. What helps, and what should you avoid?
Mental health
Severe depression with a suicide plan: admission. A depressed man describes a specific overdose plan. What is the next management step?
Postpartum psychosis with an organic contributor. Command hallucinations a week after birth, and a TSH of 18. What else is driving this?
First-episode psychosis: choosing an antipsychotic. A first psychotic episode in a woman with obesity and prediabetes. Which antipsychotic fits?
Population health and ethics
Meningococcal disease: notification and contact prophylaxis. Confirmed meningococcal disease. What happens for the people who live with the patient?
Suspected non-accidental injury: mandatory reporting. Unexplained patterned bruising on a 4-year-old. What does the law require of you?
Fitness to drive: hypoglycaemia in a commercial driver. An insulin-treated taxi driver with severe hypos refuses to report himself. What's your duty?
All 50 cases are on our free AMC clinical cases page, grouped the same way.
Got one wrong? Good, that's what practice is for. Now test yourself against the clock with 20 free AMC questions. Every option is explained the moment you answer, and you finish with your weakest topic named. No account, no card. Create your free account afterwards and your answers carry over.
How to work a case so it sticks
Reading a case is easy. Learning from one takes about five extra minutes and a little discipline. Here's the routine we suggest:
Give yourself 90 seconds. The real exam allows about 84 seconds a question (3.5 hours for 150), so practise at that pace from day one.
Commit before you scroll. Pick an answer and say why in one line. If you can't say why, you guessed, and that's worth knowing.
Read all five explanations. Including the options you ruled out. AMC distractors are plausible on purpose, so knowing why each wrong answer is wrong is half the skill.
Write the takeaway in your own words. One line, in one running document. Then compare it with the case's high-yield takeaway; the snake bite case is a good one to try first.
Redo the misses cold. Come back to every case you got wrong after three days and again after two weeks, and answer before you look at anything.
That's the same loop our question bank runs on, at scale: more than 2,800 original AMC Part 1 questions, each with an explanation for every option, and your results broken down by specialty and topic. Start with the free cases and you'll see the format straight away.
AMC recalls: frequently asked questions
Are AMC recalls allowed?
Sharing or selling them breaches the AMC's examination rules, which prohibit disclosing exam content or supplying material presented as AMC exam content. Relying on them carries its own risk: if the AMC's analysis suggests a result was materially affected by prior knowledge of the questions, it can withhold the result and ask the candidate to sit again.
Do AMC recall questions repeat in the real exam?
You can't count on it. The exam is computer adaptive, so each candidate sees a different set of questions. At least half come from a pool of previously calibrated items, and new items are checked and calibrated before they count. Even when a topic comes up again, the version in front of you will turn on details a recall doesn't have.
Where can I find free AMC practice questions?
Right here. AMC Academic has 50 free worked clinical cases, each with a full explanation and a one-line reason every wrong option is wrong, plus 20 free questions you can start without an account. The AMC's MCQ Examination Specifications also include sample questions that show the format.
Are AMC Academic's cases based on AMC recalls?
They're based on recalled topics, but every question is our own. We write each case from scratch to the published blueprint and check it against Australian guidelines; no AMC examination material is used or reproduced. Browse the free cases.
Is anything in an AMC recall useful?
Yes: the topics. Recalls show which presentations candidates keep meeting. The details and answer keys are where they go wrong, which is why our free cases rebuild those topics as fresh, fully explained questions.
How should I use AMC recall questions?
Use them to spot topics, then practise those topics on questions you can trust. Check every recall answer against current Australian guidelines or a worked case on the same topic, focus on the reasoning rather than the answer letter, and never share or sell them, because that breaches the AMC's rules.
Practise AMC recall topics with AMC Academic
Three steps, and the first two are free:
Try 20 questions free. Start now, with no account or card. Every option is explained the moment you answer, and you finish with your weakest topic named.
Create your free account. Sign up and your answers carry over. Nothing is charged until you choose a plan.
Unlock the full bank when you're ready. More than 2,800 original AMC Part 1 questions on recalled topics, timed mock exams, results by specialty and topic, Astra and IELTS Academic, from US$19 a month. Every plan runs for a fixed term with no auto-renewal and comes with a 7-day money-back guarantee.
Planning your study from scratch? Start with our guide to AMC Part 1 exam preparation.
Disclaimer: AMC Academic is an independent educational platform and isn't affiliated with or endorsed by the Australian Medical Council. Our cases and questions are written by our own team as original material. They're based on commonly recalled exam topics, but we don't use, reproduce or distribute AMC examination material or recalled exam questions, and our content doesn't replicate or preview any actual exam. Read our full disclaimer.